Friday 6 June 2008

Richard Cheese

Firstly, an extra warm welcome to any new visitors, who have wandered over due to my ‘guest spot’ over on Planet Mondo. Thanks for dropping by! Have fun clickin’ around and I hope you’ll pop back from time to time…


I love the way you stumble across new music. Lately the iPod has become a real boon for this, as people now walkabout with room-fulls of music in their back pocket. A while back, I was heading off to a meeting in London, and bumped into an old friend on the train. Both music fiends, we spent the whole journey connected to each other's earphones, linked only with sentences like "check this out" "have you heard these" "I can't get enough of this" etc etc. And it was this chance meeting that introduced me to Richard Cheese, whose complete back catalogue I now own.

Richard Cheese’s slant is genius, Sinatra-fied versions of punk, metal, rap and indie toons! Ah! I hear you cry, we’ve seen all this before with Paul Anka... But Mr C actually predates Anka’s cover albums by a few years, and has been releasing his brand of lounge classics since 2000. To be fair, Paul Anka is playing it pretty straight with his CDs anyway. He’s chosen sensible-ish songs with sensible-ish lyrics. Had you not known the originals, you'd probably be happy to take them as Anka originals (my father for example loves Anka’s covers albums, but is unlikely to know the Van Halen, Pet Shop Boys, Oasis originals).

With tongue firmly in cheek, Richard Cheese makes a beeline for songs with quirky, odd and downright rude lyrics, making the whole experience much livelier… oh, and much much funnier! Martini Metalica anyone?! How about some Swingin’ Snoop Dog or maybe a Chili Pepper Cocktail??! These songs are ‘laugh-out-loud’ funny, yet at the same time, you can't help but be impressed at the quality of the arrangements, production and the musicians involved (who, by a remarkable coincidence are Bobby Ricotta, Gordon Brie and Buddy Goulda!). After six albums of bizarre covers, the latest release by Dick (yes I know, Dick Cheese…) is a CD choc-full of TV themes.

I urge you to investigate the Dickster, or at the very least check out the three samples I’ve added below…. It was tough to narrow it down to 3, but in the end I went for a shot of ‘Slipknot at the Sands’ (I mean, anyone, who can make a Slipknot song sound good, MUST be a musical genius right??!), and a slice of ‘ring-a-ding’ Radiohead. All finished off with my personal favourite, a dash of Dead Kennedys.. Las Vegas style!

Enjoy!

People = Shit (Slipknot):











Creep (Radiohead):











Holiday in Cambodia (Dead Kennedys):










Oh and don’t forget to check out Richard’s website, where you can buy all his CDs and only the finest quality merchandise!

If these toons have given you the taste for more cheesy morsels, why not pop over to Planet Mondo, where as guest blogger, i've just posted 3 forgotten nuggets!

Piley

5 comments:

rockmother said...

How much do we love Richard Cheese? My personal favourite is The Girl Is Mine which has a guest spot from Stephen Hawking - sick but brilliant. I'll put it on the next podcast - been meaning to for ages and keep forgetting because I make it all up as I go along - rubbish dj that I am.

Mondo said...

Love these swishy swingers - Creep and Holidays are magic

Have you checked out the Pat Boone album No More Mr Nice Guy
(made several years before Paul Anka's thing)

Cocktails said...

Hello Piley, Just in the mood for some more easy listening so popped over from Mr Mondo's site. And thankfully I did - I've never heard of Richard Cheese before and that is one heck of a great version of Holiday in Cambodia. So cheers for that!

Piley said...

RM - yup, another Dickster classic! I could have easily picked that one too!

Mondo - have never heard this, knew about it, but never caught it. I've never been a fan of his, which is no doubt why i've been a bit shy...

Hi cocktails, thanks for swingin' by! Delighted you found a nugget! His albums are worth investigating too.

P

Axe Victim said...

Hey P - I'm in the mood for somthing mellow... great post. Am now hopping over to Mondo Towers to tune in again.